Hershey Bar
Preserved but no longer current.
In the U.S.A. a Hershey Bar is a trade-marked form of sweetmeat; in U.S. army slang the term was applied to the gold narrow bar worn by troops on the left sleeve to indicate that they had done six months* overseas service.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Hershey Bar” mean?
In the U.S.A. a Hershey Bar is a trade-marked form of sweetmeat; in U.S. army slang the term was applied to the gold narrow bar worn by troops on the left sleeve to indicate that they had done six months* overseas service.
Is “Hershey Bar” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.